Allen Lyle: Have you ever thought you’ve wanted to replace your kitchen faucet? It’s not that it’s that difficult but it does take a lot of patience. I’m OK with plumbing work, but I’m not that ok with patience. But, let me show you how easy it can be.

Obviously we’re going to take this out. We’re going to replace it with a different fixture and you would think the first thing you would want to do is to turn the water off. Actually the first thing you want to do is gather all of your tools together. A couple things I like to have handy are paper towels, just in case because you will have a little bit of extra water in the line, mop that up. I also have a regular towel that I keep. This is not for water, this is for my back because we’re going to be inside the cabinet.

Make sure the cabinet is completely cleaned out. And I also keep a little cup or something just in case I have a little bit of water that again I can just capture and keep it handy. Alright, so I’ve got my tools, I’ve got some wrenches, I’ve got some tape here, some Teflon tape, and the most important tool for me are my glasses. Now it’s time to turn off the water.

This handy faucet and sink installer tool makes this job much easier, I like this tool. I always open up the lines just to release any extra pressure. Put my towel down, and I’ll see you in about a week or so.

Alright first thing, I’m going to disconnect the water supply line. This tool is especially handy for this job because space is so limited. I’m disconnecting both water supply lines and in this case the hose for the sprayer. Then the next step is removing the lock nuts that hold the faucet in place.

OK, we’re ready for our new faucet. The manufacturer’s instructions will tell you how to assemble the new faucet. And because this is a single handled unit, I’m using the trim ring to cover the extra holes in the sink top. Alright, I’ve got everything in place. I’ll feed this down the center hole in the first three. We’ll talk about the fourth hole in just a moment. This faucet has its own supply lines so we can disconnect the old ones from the shut off valves. Later we’ll attach the new ones directly to those valves.

First, the locking nut slides up over the supply lines and onto the threaded base to secure the faucet. Before we connect the supply lines, we need to wrap the thread of the valves with Teflon tape. An important thing when you are applying Teflon tape is that you want to make sure it is being wrapped in the same direction as you would when you’re turning the nut to tighten it. This will help ensure a completely water tight seal once the supply line is in place.

Just make sure you have the hot and cold supply lines connected to the appropriate valves. Then you can turn the water back on, check for leaks, and test the new faucet. How about that?

Alright, for that fourth hole that had a sprayer in it, which we don’t need anymore because it’s actually incorporated in the faucet, we are going to put a soap dispenser. You can also use this for hand lotion but I have found that it works really good just to put your dishwashing soap in it. That way if you’re washing dishes by hand, you just squirt a little bit right into the sink and you’re ready to roll.

Now, it takes a little bit of effort again, you’re crawling under the sink to install this, but the nice thing is that you’re not having to crawl under there every time to fill up the dispenser because you can actually fill it up from the topside. This requires one more locknut before threading on the dispenser bottle.

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How to Replace a Kitchen Faucet

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